D&D 5E Question on Leomunds Secret Chest and Downtime

[altquark]

I'm hoping some other DM's might shed light on the following.

I have a player whose character has acquired the spell "Leomunds Secret Chest". As per the spell, it requires two chests - one small chest (worth 50gp) and a second chest (worth 5000gp). The character hasn't found a chest like that in the world yet - but the player is adamant they want to get the spell to work. So, I ruled that the character can craft the chest - using Crafting Rules, ie, 5000gp in 25gp daily increments - which would result in taking 200days to manufacture. Since the crafting is not of a magical item, I'm allowing the character to not spend any spell slots, and to allow any number of other player characters to help with construction (ie, a total of 10 players would therefore take 20 days to manufacture). Given that a Bag of Holding is very similar (without the negative connotations of Leomunds Secret Chest) - and as an "uncommon" item would only take 20 days of downtime to contruct by a mage - it really doesn't seem much sense to me to go ahead and spend so long crafting the two chests. Am I being overly strict ? Do the crafting rules extend to manufacture of non-magical items ?

 

[iserith]

Why not just have the chest be available for sale by a famed artisan who crafted it for a king who never received it. She'll give it to them for 2500 gp and some help resolving a dispute she has with the local guild, something the PCs' background features would be particularly suited to fixing.

 

[Noctem]

The crafting rules in 5e are ridiculous. Do what makes the most sense for you and your group. Maybe introduce items required to make the chest that have to be gathered via side quests, ranging from simple to complex. You could also tie in those sidequests into the main plot of the campaign in various ways. Personally, I wouldn't follow the crafting rules for 5e to make anything.

 

[altquark]

A little more background.

The party is in the mountains. I have them in the Orsraun Mountain Range in Turmish in Faerun. They just finished killing Hill Giants in my variant of "Steading of the Hill Giant Chief" - and they have 7 days of downtime in a small mountain village before leaving to battle Stone Giants at Howling Crag. Now, the village is several days to the West of Xorhun - which used to be a major city, before an "event" occurred in the campaign which resulted in the city now being a refugee center.

So, the party are some distance from any major city, so I'm not comfortable just "selling" them the chest. (But, on the other hand, I do need something to suck some gold out from the parties coffers).

I'm starting to agree with Noctem to introduce a side-quests to acquire the chest.

 

[Jediking]

Maybe next time they clear a dungeon and find a treasure hoard, all those coins are sure locked up in a fancy looking chest.

Plus, there are those local rumours of a petrified mimic in the closed down museum on the edge of town...

 

[Noctem]

A little more background.

The party is in the mountains. I have them in the Orsraun Mountain Range in Turmish in Faerun. They just finished killing Hill Giants in my variant of "Steading of the Hill Giant Chief" - and they have 7 days of downtime in a small mountain village before leaving to battle Stone Giants at Howling Crag. Now, the village is several days to the West of Xorhun - which used to be a major city, before an "event" occurred in the campaign which resulted in the city now being a refugee center.

So, the party are some distance from any major city, so I'm not comfortable just "selling" them the chest. (But, on the other hand, I do need something to suck some gold out from the parties coffers).

I'm starting to agree with Noctem to introduce a side-quests to acquire the chest.

The stone giants have a chest, made up of pure rare ore they hewed themselves, that would fit with the requirements of the ritual. Problem solved. If you want to add a degree of difficulty, make it a tucked away in a secret treasure room or near an important place. The chest could also have some weight reduction enchantments on it to make it easier to carry around. Maybe the brawny guy in the group starts using it as a two handed maul? Dunno, run with it.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Cant the party just get a 10gp chest, a hot glue gun, and 4990 in gems? Problem should be solved in about 5 minutes!